LSU-IAC Available to Help Businesses With Energy Efficiency
October 23, 2019
BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU boasts a number of initiatives and programs that make it unique among its peers around the country, but perhaps one of the lesser known is the LSU Industrial Assessment Center, or LSU-IAC.
The center was created in 2016 when LSU was awarded one of the 28 IACs at universities across the country by the U.S. Department of Energy. Other schools with such a program in the region include the University of Florida, Texas A&M University and the University of Alabama.
IAC’s across the United States have trained more than 3,500 engineering students and have performed more than 17,000 assessments with more than 133,000 associated recommendations. The average recommended yearly savings is $136,086.
“LSU-IAC has two goals—to provide free industrial assessments to help manufacturers reduce cost and increase potential savings in areas like energy efficiency, waste minimization, pollution prevention, and productivity; and to train engineering students by engaging them in the process,” said LSU-IAC Director Jonathan Shi, Art Favre Chair professor in LSU’s Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management.
Shi is assisted by his associate directors Chao Wang and Hyun Woo Jeon, assistant professors in LSU Construction Management and Mechanical Engineering, respectively.
If a company’s annual energy bill at one site is between $100,000 to $2.5 million, it can contact the center to schedule a free energy assessment. A team of trained LSU faculty and students then visit the facility and produce an energy audit and recommendations for possible implementation. They can also focus on a particular area that a company might be interested in, such as cybersecurity.
Through a partnership with Entergy, that assessment may then qualify the company for incentives through the Entergy Solutions program.
“The partnership (with Entergy) helps LSU-IAC reach out to a broad client base and in the meantime, LSU-IAC provides technical assistance to Entergy Solutions through its assessments,” Shi said. “LSU-IAC works with Entergy Solutions to identify potential commercial clients and assist them in estimating rebates from the Entergy Solutions program.”
Interested companies may request an assessment online at http://iac.lsu.edu, by calling 225-578-1255, or by emailing lsuiac@lsu.edu.
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Contact: Joshua Duplechain
Director of Communications
225-578-5706 (o)